


The Standard Job

by CrystalZelda



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalZelda/pseuds/CrystalZelda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What should have been a routine job retrieving New Rome Museum's golden eagle standard turned into so much more once the team discovers Gaia Incorporated's plans for Camp Jupiter, an educational camp for troubled youth. It's going to take every ounce of cunning, skill and luck this haphazard group of bad guys turned good ever had. Inspired by Leverage and set in a god free universe, this is grifter!AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enter Reyna

_This work was inspired by[psychohannahlyze's](http://psychohannahlyze.tumblr.com) grifter/Leverage [AU](http://crystalzelda.tumblr.com/post/76073117464/suchastart-psychohannahlyze-grifter-au-with) on tumblr, do check it out for a bit more context. I am posting this all from my [tumblr](http://crystalzelda.tumblr.com) under the tags grifter!au and grifter au, as well as other headcanons or posts about the fic._

“Annabeth,” Jason muttered over the coms. “We have a problem.”

Annabeth looked up from sipping her glass of champagne. She normally wasn’t on site for their missions, but this score was just too important – all hands on deck. “What’s going on?” she replied, making sure to keep the flute in front of her lips so no one could see them move. Not exactly a smart move, to be seen mumbling to yourself at a fancy party.

“Reyna’s here.”

Oh, shit.

Of course she would be, Annabeth thought to herself sourly, the one person on the continent who knew exactly who they all were, what they looked like, how they operated, and with the authority (and the warrants) to arrest them all and send them to prison for the rest of their natural lives – or worse. Brilliant – it’s not like this case was incredibly important or anything. Annabeth bit off a growl of frustration.

“Reyna’s here? You mean, at the party?” squawked Leo – never mind that he was outside in the parking lot, safe in the surveillance van he’d dubbed the Argo II (named after it’s predecessor, the Argo, which had met an unfortunate explosive end when it had needed to be used as a decoy a few years back, something that Leo still bemoaned occasionally) – he had a healthy amount of fear for the dark haired Interpol agent, thanks to Jason’s colorful tales recounting his own past as an ex-agent when he was still partnered with her. Leo was decidedly uneager to tangle with Reyna, lest he end up in prison cell in Abu Dhabi for the next 45 years. Needless the say, the rest of the team shared his apprehension. Annabeth could almost feel their collective stress over tonight’s newest arrival – hell, she was feeling plenty stressed herself.

“Calm down, Leo. It’s going to be fine.” Piper’s calm voice floated through their shared coms, reminding them all to take a breath. Piper was good at that. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the time to give them all a pep talk, considering that she was in the process of keep three of their marks distracted with her scintillating conversation and her equally hypnotic plunging neckline – not something Jason entirely encouraged, but accepted none the less. It struck Annabeth that Piper was probably even less pleased with the current situation than she was – after all, even if Jason had sworn up and down that Reyna and he had never been together, it still made Piper nervous to know she was close to them… close to him. That, and the whole “wanted criminals in the presence of a law enforcement mastermind” thing.

Annabeth took a deep breath and tried to do a rapid headcount. Nico was right now doing a surveillance sweep of the basement, having only been able to gain access during the party; Hazel was with him, dressed as catering staff but really providing support and an extra pair of eyes to stand guard; Frank, who was also posing as catering, was right now moving through the crowd, picking up intel and cloning cell phones with the equipment Leo had given him (who was parked outside in the Argo II) as he carried a tray full of champagne and hors d’oeuvres; Jason and Piper were dressed as party guests, mingling and schmoozing with the fat cats while making sure that their targets stayed as far away from the basement as possible to give Nico and Hazel time to act. Finally, there was Percy, part of the security team, which gave him unfettered access to the place but also required him to actually perform his duties so as not to blow his cover. Annabeth gave him a pointed look when he made a move towards her – it warmed her heart that his first instinct was to hustle her out of the place, it did, but hoofing it wasn’t going to solve their Reyna problem OR complete their mission, so there was nothing to do but to keep an eye out for –

“Annabeth Chase. Well, what a surprise.”

Annabeth turned around slowly, keeping her face professionally blank and detached. Reyna Avilla Ramirez Arrelano looked as cool as ever - eyes sharp, hair pinned up and carefully plated to stay out of her eyes, dress suit well fitted and wrinkle free. She should have looked out of place amid the sea of cocktail dresses and eveningwear, but somehow, the agent made it work.

Not that Annabeth would let her know that. “You’re not exactly dressed for the occasion.” Reyna lifted her eyebrow. “Can’t say the same for you,” she answered drily.

Annabeth stopped herself from looking down at her outfit. True, it wasn’t her normal digs – she much preferred shorts and sneakers to anything that would slow her down – but attending a party meant party wear, which explained the floor length cornflower blue sequined dress she was currently wearing. It was just then that Annabeth realized that with her in 4 inch heels and with Reyna in fashionable but practical ankle boots, she didn’t have much of an escape route.

Just when Annabeth was about to damn the torpedoes and make a break for it, Reyna grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing busboy (not Frank, much to Annabeth’s chagrin – he might be a teddy bear, but an imposing one, which at the moment would have made her feel better), and said in a tone that was almost bored, “Relax, Chase, I’m not here to bust you.”

Annabeth resisted the urge to narrow her eyes and scoff. “Well, what are you here for, then?”

At that, Reyna gave her a toothy smile that really should have looked a lot friendlier than it was. “Why, to help with tonight’s big takedown, of course.”


	2. Bad Idea, Seaweed Brain

“Percy, it’s suicide!”

Percy shook his head before she could finish her sentence. “No, it’s not! It’s doable – ”

“Yeah, if you have a death wish,” muttered Nico from his stool, his back to the wall. Hazel sat next to him, carefully sipping a mug of something hot (probably hot chocolate, knowing her), staying silent but observing them all, attention rapt.

Leo snorted from behind his laptop. “Yeah, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, _Ghost King_?”

Nico gave him a filthy look. Unfortunately, having a hacking mastermind on your team meant losing all your online privacy – ever since Leo had done a preliminary search on them on the Internet and had discovered Nico’s Mythomagic Online avatar, GhostKing39, he’d never let him live it down. Before he could snap back a retort, their attention was captured once more by Percy and Annabeth’s bickering. “It’s worth a try, Annabeth, what do we have to lose?”

“Oh, I don’t know, getting arrested, getting _shot_ –”

“We risk that on every mission!”

Frank came in, carrying a tray with more steaming mugs. He looked troubled to see his teammates’ arguing. “Oh, no, are they fighting? What’s going on?”

Leo just rolled his eyes as he grabbed his own drink. “Mom and Dad are just having a spat. Gotta have an excuse to have all the makeup sex, I’d guess.”

Nico pounced. “Well, you definitively wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Valdez?” Leo contended himself with throwing up a rude gesture that made Hazel gasp in her hot chocolate.

Jason held up his hand. He and Piper were lounging on the couch – like Hazel, Piper had decided not to interject just yet, letting the scene play out. They were in their offices, in the back of a pub, much to Frank’s pleasure, since he simply loved cooking.

“I agree with Percy,” Jason said quietly once he’d gotten a chance to interject. Annabeth gaped at him. “You’re supposed to be backing me up, not going along with Percy’s crazy plans! Remember the job with the Nigerians?”

They both ignored Percy’s indignant howl: “Oh my GOD, it was ONE TIME! An empty warehouse, who cares ANYWAYS!”

Jason held up his hands. “Hear me out, okay? That standard is important. If it doesn’t get back to the museum in New Rome, it’ll close, and Camp Jupiter needs that revenue to stay open too.”

Piper suddenly frowned. “Wait, where? And not to sound callous, but why do we care?”

Percy interjected, galvanized by Jason’s support. “New Rome is a small town in California, and Camp Jupiter is this all year long camp for underprivileged kids that let them stay and give them a good education so they can go to college. Thing is, it runs on private donations, mostly from the museum’s revenue, but ever since Polybotes Industry swooped in and took their biggest attraction, an ancient Roman Eagle Standard, attendance has completely dried up, and they’ll close their doors for good soon. All those kids are going to lose their one shot at getting a good life, it’s totally messed up! Plus, the CEO’s just going to stick it in his Alaskan mansion, no one will ever see it. We NEED to get it back.”

At that, Nico shook his head. “Polybotes has serious security. I saw the guys they use to patrol their HQs – they are not kidding around, these dudes are serious. All ex-Special Forces, I’d say, by their haircuts.”

There was a small moment of silence.

“What?” Nico growled. “It’s a very distinctive haircut!”

As Hazel patted his arm and told him she believed him while Leo wheezed with laughter in his hot chocolate, Percy turned to Annabeth. “Please,” he said in a low voice. “This is important to me.”

At that, Piper grinned to herself – if Percy was turning on his baby seal eyes, it was a done deal. Annabeth tried to refuse him, but it was a monumental task when he worked his charms.

Annabeth sighed, the sound short and sharp. “Percy –”

Just then Percy grabbed her hands between his and gently rubbed her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. He didn’t say anything, just looked at her with his big, mournful sea green eyes.

“Oh, fuck. Fine! But I swear to god, Jackson, if we get shot, I’m gonna kill you!”


	3. The Plot Thickens, Because of Course It Does

“Who are you on the phone with?” Frank plopped himself next to Hazel, who was busy chatting up a storm on her cell while she was riffling through a box of what appeared to be passports –dozens of little booklets from all over the world, some brand new, others wrinkled and stamped by countless border patrols.

“Rachel,” she answered cheerfully. “I had a question about turn of the century ink that was used by German immigration offices, and Rachel needed to talk to me about the new holographic strips in Brazilian passports.”

Rachel Elizabeth Dare happened to be a forger, just like Hazel – unlike her, however, the redhead specialized in art forgeries while Hazel was more about documents: passports, watermarks, official documentations… Elizabeth rarely, if ever, ventured in the field, but she and Hazel kept close contact to swap tips and knowledge.

It was a bit unusual to have a forger on site with them, but it had been impossible to set up the team without her. When Jason had once hinted that maybe, just maybe, Hazel should be working from home like Rachel did, both she and Frank had howled in protest until Jason relented – there was also the fact that Nico had flatly refused to come on board without his sister, which had sealed the deal. Nico was indispensible, so if he wanted Hazel to stay, Hazel would stay.

There was also the added benefit that prolonged contact with her brother was helping her develop her own surveillance skills – she didn’t have Nico’s near magic for melting into the darkness and slipping into nearly any building entirely unnoticed, but she was getting damn good at recon and her underground navigational skills were quickly becoming unparalleled.

Just as Hazel hung up with Rachel and turned her attention to her boyfriend (he’d written a report about his morning spent people watching at the Polybotes HQ, and had brought her a sandwich to boot), they were interrupted by Leo running in, muttering “badbadbadbad VERY bad,” as he held his laptop aloft before plunking it down on the table in the middle of their meeting room.

At the back of the pub, where their own home base was located, was a cavernous room that had once been storage for food and beer barrels; Percy and Leo had transformed it into their own HQ, rigging it up with the latest technologies that Leo insisted were vital for their briefs and mission preparations. Piper had been responsible for making the space actually livable – there were a multitude of couches, loveseats, and tables where the 8 of them had room to spread out, work with others or by themselves to prepare for their tasks for each case.

Right now, the room was only occupied by Frank, Hazel and Leo, but that soon changed when Leo started bawling on the coms for all of them to get their asses down to the “batcave” (no one but him called it that) NOWRIGHTNOW – Annabeth was the first in, quickly followed by Percy. Frank noted with reddening cheeks that Annabeth’s hair was looking decidedly disheveled and her lips were red, but her eyes were entirely focused and sharp. On the other hand, Percy was looking both vaguely confused and pissed off – he was adjusting his shirt and trying to smooth his hair down as he followed his girlfriend into the room. When he (rather sullenly, Frank had to note), threw himself down on the couch next to them, Frank felt it was his duty to surreptitiously indicate to Percy that he had a few pink smears around his mouth, which seemed to match the color of Annabeth’s tinted lip balm. It was just to help his friend save some face – if Leo caught Percy with some lipstick on, even if was transfer from making out with his girlfriend, he’d never let him live it down. Percy hastened to scrub his face clean, still looking rather sulky about the interruption.

Frank shouldn’t have bothered – Leo was anything but occupied with what his teammates had on their backs, much less their lips. Once everyone had filed in (Nico looking dour, but that was entirely normal for him, followed by a concerned Jason. Piper brought up the rear, yawning and looking curious as to what had interrupted her nap) and settled themselves – Nico in the back in his favorite spot, Jason on a barstool next to Leo, with Annabeth standing to his right, frowning at the screen, Leo started rapidly talking to Annabeth, waving his hands and punching keys on his laptop.

In the meantime, Piper had squeezed herself between Frank and Hazel (which Frank frankly didn’t appreciate) to lay her head in Hazel’s lap – they’d become very close since they’d joined the team, developing something akin to a sisterly relationship. Both only children, they relished indulging themselves with the kind of light, girly undertakings that sisters normally partook in like painting their nails, gossiping about boys and breaking into level 4 security bank vaults to borrow some pink diamonds; they especially loved roping Annabeth into their activities and forcing her to stop acting like such an overbearing mom for once and have a little fun, especially since being mother hen was something Percy was better at anyways. Immediately, the younger girl undid one of her friend’s ratty looking braids and rebraided it expertly while they both listened to Leo rattling off whatever he’d found out during his virtual recon of Polybotes Industries.

“- this is SO much deeper than just getting a museum relic back, you guys. See, Polybotes Industries is pretty much just a shell company owned by the real deal – Gaia Incorporated – ”

“Wait,” Percy interrupted, looking confused. “Gaia? Isn’t that some sort of internet game or something?”

Why don’t you ask our resident net game addict, I’m sure Nico’ll tell you all about his Gaia Online accou- ouch, Jesus, Nico! God, when did your aim get so good? Anyways – no, it is not that company. Gaia Inc is a PMC. It does security – rents out teams to governments, superstars, even has military contracts overseas, anything that calls for private military support, they provide. It’s got ties to Titan Corporation, which was embroiled in some prison abuse scandals in Iraq a decade ago.”

“So, basically, mercenaries?” Frank interjected, looking puzzled.

“Well technically no, because that would be illegal under international law, but more or less,” hedged Leo. When he was about to launch into the legalese distinguishing the two, Annabeth held up her hand. “Leo, get to the point. What does this has to do with the standard?”

“The thing is, Polybotes doesn’t give a damn about the standard,” he explained. “They acquired it by arm twisting and barely legal maneuvers, just to expedite the process, but they didn’t care about the acquisition holding up in court, so stealing proof that they got it illegally doesn’t matter. Their real goal, according to these inter office memos, is to get the museum to close. They’re deliberately starving it out of cash to get it to go under.”

Nico stirred from his customary high stool in the back. “What on Earth,” he drawled slowly, looking even direr than usual, “Would a private military company possibly gain from the closing of a tiny museum in Podunk, California?”

Leo grimly pressed the clicker – behind him, the giant screens started pulling up pictures of a large looking camp full of kids in purple t-shirts and scans of interoffice memos, all with the stamp CLASSIFIED emblazoned horizontally across the papers. “Camp Jupiter. What they’d gain is Camp Jupiter.”

Jason yelped while Percy sat up straight, looking positively alarmed. Hazel and Frank shot each other a look of pure panic. “What? What do you mean, they’d gain the Camp?”

Leo tripped over himself to explain. “Once the museum closes, Camp Jupiter’s source of revenue will dry up, meaning the admin is going to have to either sell or close up, too. Gaia Corp. is right now drawing up papers to have another shell company send a lowball offer for the place, and they’ll get it, too – Camp Jupiter doesn’t have the funds to keep the place open for two months after the museum boards up. These memos are hella creepy, by the way – talking about the ‘potential’ of the campers and how they’ll get them into ‘fighting shape’ and all kinds of talk of weird experiments about stimulating their aggressive instincts – they’re gonna turn this place, and all the kids that go there into some sort of, some sort –”

“Mercenary school,” finished Percy angrily.

Even Annabeth looked seriously enraged at that point. “They’re going to take these kids who are looking to go to college and get an education and they’re going to turn them into soldiers that they’ll funnel right into their military personnel and mess with their minds up to boot so they don’t have a chance to leave if they want to… that’s sick!” At that point, the blonde looked ready to kill.

“We have to stop them!” Hazel was at her feet at that point, Piper having sat up straight minutes ago, her braid unfinished in her hair. “We have to do something!”

“You guys, this is a PMC! All they DO is security, and not the ‘turn you over to the police’ kind, either, more like ‘waste any intruders and feed their bodies to the dogs’ kind of security. This is the _real deal_.”

Annabeth’s steely voice cut through the rising panic in the room. “We can take them on,” her tone allowed for no dissention. “We’re going to get that stupid standard back and save that camp.” She glared at the screen, which right now featured the large, overbearing Gaia Incorporated logo. “They’re not gonna know what hit them.”


	4. Boys' Night Out

"Nico," Leo gasped as they crouched behind the wall. They could hear the ricochet of the bullets hitting the concrete around them, the yells of the security team tracking them as they got nearer and nearer. They were both panting, Nico looking even paler than usual, almost bone white as his eyes twitched around, looking for an exit. Leo was even worse - he was clammy and gasping for breath - he swore to himself that if he EVER got out of this one, he’d lay off the orange soda and go jogging every single day. Okay, ever other day. Once a week! Promise.

"What?" bit Nico back, looking harried. Leo raised his hand and looked dead into Nico’s eyes. "High five. For morale."

There was a pregnant pause.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

Determined, Leo kept his arm up and bawled again, “HIGH FIVE FOR MORALE, NICO!”

A little panicked by the extreme reaction and not having much of a choice, Nico hesitantly tapped Leo’s outstretched hand, then made a face and wiped his hand on his pants. “GUYS!” a voice floated towards them from the edge of the building.

Just then, the floodlights on the rooftop all went out. There were cries of confusion from the goons tailing them as they screamed to stop shooting lest they hit each other, but Nico didn’t wait for them to catch up. Grabbing Leo by the scruff of his neck, he dragged him to the edge of the building, clipped his harness to a drainpipe and rappelled down to the floor below - there was an open window from which Jason hung half out. Nico grabbed Leo again and half flung him off the roof - Jason extended his hand and grabbed their hacker before he could tumble down the building. Leo was entirely silent the entire time, most probably frozen in fear at being flung around near deadly heights. Once Leo was in safely, Nico unclipped his harness and leapt into the dark room after his teammates, as quiet as a cat. Jason carefully closed the window again, shutting off the sounds of the shouting security, still trying to locate the intruders and attempting to get the lights back on.

"Shit," muttered Nico. "That was fucking close. Lucky those lights went out -" Leo wheezed with laughter from the carpet, where he’d collapsed. "Luck had nothing to do with it, buddy." He held up his smartphone smugly, looking strangely triumphant for someone lying in a heap on the floor. "I got access to their mainframe and turned the floodlights off."

Jason whistled with appreciation while Nico gave him a disgusted look. “High five for morale, my ass. Fuck you, Valdez. We gotta split, we’re gonna get shot up for real if we stick around.”

"You know you love me!" Leo cried after them both, struggling to get to his feet as they quickly made their way out of the room. On the fourth floor, in the elevator shaft, they met up with Frank and Percy - Frank had managed to walk into the documents database library during the excitement while Percy had kept extra teams of security off his back. He had a split lip, but was grinning broadly. "Let’s go, dudes," he said cheerfully. "Frank got a ton of files and I got a bunch of really interesting tidbits too… Annabeth’s gonna be super pleased. The van’s parked in the back, Hazel texted me about some old tunnel in the basement that’ll take us directly to that parking lot to bypass the rest of the goon squad.”

Nico sniffed as the elevator took them down to the last floor. “Yeah, wouldn’t want to displease Annabeth by coming home empty handed, never mind we almost got our asses pumped full of lead -“

Percy was unimpressed. “Yeah, you go and crawl back to the pub with nothing and break the news to her. We all know you’re as scared of her as we are.” Jason shuffled his feet while Frank nodded his head pensively. Leo was too busy typing away on his phone to pay attention.

It was a Thursday night. After some deep inflection about what they were going to do following last night’s revelations about the true culprit behind the disappearing gold eagle standard that had kept the New Rome museum open and Camp Jupiter free from outside interference, they’d decided that some on site recon of Polybotes Industry was needed. An infiltration was planned for the following night – a fundraiser or other that Polybotes was sponsoring was organized for that evening, ensuring that the building would be largely empty.

Jason had convinced Annabeth that it would make sense if he and the boys went to the headquarters, while the girls headed to the party to try and gather any kind of information that they could. He’d wisely kept to himself that he’d much rather have them, including his girlfriend Piper, at a fancy party rather than the HQ of a shady company affiliated with the private military sector. Not that parties couldn’t get spotty, but Piper could talk her way out of a tight spot – however, she couldn’t talk her way out of a bullet if it came to that. Annabeth hadn’t been pleased, and neither had Hazel and Piper, but after Nico, Frank and Percy had thrown in their support for that plan, they hadn’t been left with much of a choice, even though the look in their eyes promised retribution for what they considered being side lined. All things considered, however, it made more sense for girls to go to the party while they went to the headquarters, both for the mission and for their own personal safety (again, not that he’d ever vocalize that – he recalled the bank job incident when Percy had suggested to Annabeth that she wait outside when he went with the mark to retrieve the money from the accounts… Percy still swore he’d gotten permanent hearing loss from the earful she’d doled out).

So the boys had headed out in their team van Argo II, while the girls had in their revenge taken Festus, Leo’s beloved roadster, causing Leo to sulk all the way to the HQ – despite his love for flashy vehicles, Leo was no longer allowed to drive them, especially not on missions, after a particularly nasty incident involving Ed Hardy t-shirts, diamonds and the Russian Mafia. On that topic, Leo was also forbidden from using a cockney accent or run point on missions, but that was another story.

The mission had started off rather well – Percy and Frank had gone off to the research and development part of the building to gather intel, with Frank dressed in as a late working office drone and Percy bringing muscle if Frank’s cover failed him. Jason had decided to try his luck getting into the CEO’s office, while Leo insisted Nico take him to the IT floor, where most of the classified information would be held, as well as control over the electrical systems of the building would be held.

It all went wrong on the 7th floor, after Leo and Nico had successfully gotten in and out of the mainframe servers and gotten a nice little stash of information, when Leo’s cracking tool took too long to figure out the 8 digit passcode on the door to get out of the IT floor, leading to him getting busted by security, which lead to them getting shot at, leading to them fleeing up the roof for their lives.

Jason, unfortunately, hadn’t managed to get into the CEO’s offices – fortunately, however, he had made it through to the secretary’s office, which was conveniently located on the top floor, putting him in a position to hear security yowling and shooting after his team. He’d opened the window wide, called for them to let them know to head down this way, and waited with baited breath for them to finally get their asses off the roof and into the elevator, where Percy and Frank had thankfully rejoined them.

Frank and Percy’s tour of the facility had been a little less eventful. While Percy looked out for others, Frank had successfully swiped some poor schmuck’s ID card and had infiltrated the research database sector, a lab-library hybrid that housed a multitude of documents and computers, all full of lovely, lovely information. Frank wasted no time pulling some of the building’s blueprints, which Percy didn’t hesitate to photograph and send to Hazel, to see if she had any bright ideas about possible escape routes if things went south. Hazel had promptly texted back that their best option was to go via the underground, though she couldn’t vouch for the security they found down there. Percy had assured her he’d handle it. 10 seconds later, his phone rang.

“Wise Girl,” Percy had murmured, propping himself up against the wall while Frank rummaged through the room. “You know better than to call me on a mission. What’s wrong, miss me already?”

He’d practically heard Annabeth’s eyeroll through the line. “Your head is full of kelp as always, Seaweed Brain.” She’d dubbed him as such after a particularly nasty mission had ended with him getting shot by luxury car thieves and thrown overboard a port – Annabeth had been able to fish him out, half dead and with a big clump of seaweed in his hair. In her abject terror and fury that he’d gotten himself in such a dangerous situation when she’d told him to be careful, dammit, she’d dubbed him Seaweed Brain and it had stuck. “If you’re texting Hazel, you’ve got time to talk to me.”

“Feeling jealous, darling? Don’t worry, I don’t fancy getting stabbed to death by you, Frank and Nico all at once, I’ll pass. I’m sure Piper’d also have a go at me for that one, too.”

“I’m not jealous, and don’t call me darling. How’s the mission going?”

“Going well!” Percy had told her sunnily. “As far as I know, nobody’s gotten shot yet, and Frank’s looking as happy as a kid in a candy store, so I’m thinking we’re getting good stuff. Now, how’s the party going?” his voice dropped an octave. “I didn’t see what you put on before we headed out… what are you wearing?”

“Percy.” Annabeth’s voice had gone low and velvety, and he’d been able to hear her breathe over the phone, low puffs of breath that had commanded every bit of his attention. “If you don’t bring me back actionable intel… I’ll strangle you with my underwear.” The line went dead.

With a happy sigh, Percy had switched the phone off and put it back in his pocket. “Aren’t girlfriends awesome?” he’d mooned, peering over Frank’s shoulder to see what he was doing. Frank grunted in what Percy took to be assent, and had informed Percy that there was nothing more to be found here, and that it was time to go. They’d made their way to the door, opened it – to come face to face with the harried looking researcher Frank had lifted an ID from, flanked by two burly, tall, angry looking security personnel.

Two bruised knuckles, a split lip (Percy’s) and a black eye (Frank’s) later, they’d run down to the elevators, intercepted Jason, Nico and Leo (whom all looked a littler worse for wear, all things considered), and made their way back to Argo II with no further incidents. Leo curled up in the back of the van as soon as he got in, and grumpily ordered them to wake him up when they got home, because he did NOT want to be conscious for the rest of evening. Nico didn’t even give him a ribbing for that one, a sure sign of how rattled he was himself. Frank, understanding as ever, sat with them in the back in silence, giving them the space they needed as Jason filled Percy in on what had happened.

“They okay?” Percy murmured to Jason. “That’s some heavy shit, getting cornered and shot at, especially for these two. They’re not exactly the confrontational type.”

Jason sighed, keeping his eyes on the road as he drove them home. “Yeah, I think they’re pretty shook up – there’s always risk in what we do, but they’re not used to this kind of stuff you, me and Frank are. Their kind of crime, people don’t pull guns on them – Leo’ll get busted by white collar feds and nobody’s ever been fast enough to pull a gun on Nico yet.”

Percy was silent for a moment, then said quietly, “I’m just glad he didn’t, you know, bail and leave Leo to it. He could have gotten out of this, you know, but…” He didn’t have to finish his sentence. Nico was… contradictory. Due to his past, a complicated history with Percy and a few instances that had muddied the waters in terms of allegiance, it was hard to have entire faith in that dark, skinny boy, especially since he acted like he’d rather be anywhere but with them half the time. Not that they questioned his loyalty, and especially not when it came to Hazel, but it was a reassuring for Jason and Percy to know that Nico has stuck with a teammate instead of taking the opportunity to save himself – self preservation was a necessary skill for people in their line of work, but for Jason and Percy, unwavering loyalty to each other and the mission took precedence over even these life saving instincts. They sat in contemplative silence until they pulled into the parking lot of their home base, relieved to see the roadster in its place, meaning the girls had also come home from the fundraiser. Percy and Jason turned around, and took a status update on their team – Frank was looking good, save for his left eye turning puffy and purple; Nico was looking positively green, as if he’d be ready to throw up at any second, and Leo was still passed out cold.

“You know,” Jason started with a grimace, “that Hazel is going to kill us for bringing back her brother half dead and her boyfriend with his face like that.”

Percy sighed. “Oh, shit.”


	5. Girls' Night In, 1

“Don’t sulk, darling, it’s terribly unattractive.”

Annabeth’s face soured into a scowl, making Piper laugh. “Stop, Annabeth, I’m going to mess up your makeup if you keep making that face.” She smiled fondly as she carefully filled in her friend’s eyebrows. “My mom used to say that allll the time when I was a kid - it drove me up the wall. But, I can’t fault the woman; she taught me most everything there ever was to grifting, bless her heart. Without her, I’d probably be just another bored little rich girl in LA, being a tabloid celebrity child brat and crashing daddy’s Lamborghini on the Sunset Strip. There, finished,” she gave one last swipe of powder with a little flourish, and stepped back, admiring her work. “You’d look gorgeous if it wasn’t for that expression, but it still works. Damn, I’m good.” She turned back to the vanity to finish putting her hair up artfully.

“What’s wrong, Annabeth?” asked Hazel with concern. She was currently buttoning up a serviceable white blouse, paired with sensible heels and a blue shirt and blazer suit. Annabeth was starting to envy her crewmate’s wardrobe – Piper had forced her into a black cutout minidress with 4-inch heels that should be declared a health hazard. “Are you still mad about going to the party while the boys are at the HQ? Don’t you trust them to do a good job without us?”

“It’s not that,” grumbled the blonde. “I just really hate parties. I’m not a good schmoozer, and I’m a terrible grifter… It’s just not my forte, okay?” Hazel gave her a kind smile. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, it won’t be that bad!”

“Easy for you to say. You’re posing as a health inspector; I’m going to have to talk to these people and get some intel from them… Ugh, I hate when Jason and Percy agree on something.”

Piper finished adjusting her dress, a classic white sheath dress that stopped quite a few inches above her knee. “Okay ladies, let’s go, time’s a-wasting!”

They hopped into Festus and took off for the ritzy hotel ballroom where the fundraiser was being help. Hazel, sitting in the back, leaned forward. “You said if it wasn’t for your mom, you’d be in LA making a mess of yourself… Tell me again how the daughter of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood became a grifter and fell in with a crew of disreputable criminals with hearts of gold.”

Piper, at the wheel, threw her head back and laughed. “’Disreputable criminals with hearts of gold’? Who said that? Was it Leo? Hazel, honey, you need to hang out with him less.”

“Actually, it was Frank, I’ll have you know.” Hazel looked pensive. “But yes, they’ve been hanging out a lot these days… they didn’t use to get along so good. Hey! Don’t try to change the subject!”

Piper just shrugged, her eyes firmly on the road. “Not much to say – my mom was a con artist, a grifter who prayed on the rich and hot in Hollywood. Not that she needed the money, either, she just did it for the thrill of it.Instead of just taking him for all he was worth and moving on the next, mom got knocked up… Never been sure if it was part of the con or if the condom broke or something – what, Hazel? Don’t even make that face, you asked!

“Anyways, they had me, and obviously they didn’t last. They shuffled me between the two for years.” She smiled then, looking a little sad. “I reminded Dad of his heartbreak, cause the poor sucker went and fell for her, and I cramped mom’s style – hard to bleed a boyfriend dry with a 4 year old hanging about, you know? It was kinda rough, but it wasn’t all bad. I picked up a lot about grifting, acting, learning how to get what I want from people … Soon as I could, I split when I was a teenager, but I keep in contact with them. Actually, I get along way better with my parents when I’m not living with them.” Annabeth was silent in the front seat – it was impossible to tell if she was listening to the story she was already familiar with, or if she was thinking about the job. Knowing her, it was probably both.

Hazel nodded, looking down at her intertwined fingers. “That’s kinda cool, I guess. That you still talk to you parents – and that you’re such a world class grifter.” Piper stopped and turned towards her at a red light, a fond look on her face. “It is. It could definitively be worse. Ah, sweetie, we make do with what we have and we do what we can. There are worst things to be in the world than criminals who try to help people.”

“Like what?” Annabeth asked lazily. “Light’s green, by the way.”

Piper turned in her seat and gunned it. “Criminals who try to hurt people?”

“Um, I think we do that, too,” contributed Hazel. Piper grinned. “True. Nobody that didn’t deserve it, though… Vamanos, ladies! The night is young and we’re smocking hot. Plus, we’re going to a party!”

“For recon, Piper!”

“Whatever, recon, shmecon. There’s going to be booze and crab puffs. I LOVE crab puffs.” She pulled into the hotel entrance and stepped out of the car, winking to the valet parking attendant, who blushed and stumbled a little bit. Annabeth rolled her eyes with a smile, and they made their way to the ballroom. In front of the double doors was a table and a young man with a clipboard – behind them, on a big sign, introduced the event with the notice that only people with printed invitations would be allowed inside.

“Okay, so how are we going to play this?” asked Piper. “Hazel has a cover, but we need to come up with something.”

Annabeth, feeling a little smug, pulled a badge out of her clutch. “Thought something like this might come up. I’m Secret Service – I’m here to provide protection to some high level dignitaries, and I’m bringing you in as my deputy.”

Piper gave her a startled look, then snorted and started laughing. “Are you – are you serious? Oh my God, girl.” Without another word she turned towards a single balding man in front of them who was holding an invitation, and put her arm around him. “Agency sent me,” she told him with a thick accent. The man gave her a besotted look, and together, they breezed right past security.

“Really, a Russian escort?” sniffed Annabeth. “SO three years ago.” She flashed her badge at the checkpoint, and was waived right through.

During that time, Hazel had approached one of the organizers with a set glare. “Are you in charge of the kitchens and catering?” she barked. The man, startled, jumped back and clutched his clipboard to his chest. “Um, n-no, that’s someone el – who are you?”

“Who am I?” Hazel narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m the city health inspector, who else? Didn’t you read the memo about the new food and safety standards pertaining to catering in large establishments?”

“New safety measures??” the man looked around wildly. Hazel pursed her lips, and bent down to scribble something in the little notebook she held, all the while enunciating, “ _Did not read the new safety measures_ ….”

“Oh! Oh! Those safety measures!” the man laughed uncomfortably as he started to sweat. “Right, those, of course, of course. Um, what can I do for you, miss?”

Hazel gave him a baleful look. “Did you miss the “inspector” part? I’m here to INSPECT. Where is the kitchen? I need to examine the premises.”

“I – uh, right now? We’re in the middle-” Hazel immediately started writing in her notebook again, enunciating loudly, “ _Uncomfortable with BLACK authority figures_ –”

Now looking entirely panicked, the man shakily interrupted, “Right, right there, to the left! Please, uh, go ahead!” Snapping the notebook closed, Hazel gave him one last glare before flouncing off. The organizer fumbled for his walkie-talkie and muttered into it, “Guys in catering – incoming, there’s a health inspector on the premises and she is a hard ass.”

Annabeth was circulating around the room when she found Piper berating the man she’d come in with, mentioning Yuri and something about golden gloves before shoving him away from her. “He thought I was a prostitute, can you believe it?” She told Annabeth indignantly as she riffled through the wallet she’d lifted from him. “Ooh, look, a keycard for the hotel basement, you need one of those to get to lower levels… I wonder why he’s got one of those. He’s an exec at Polybotes, his ID card says.”

“Huh.” Annabeth frowned. “Sometimes, hotels have vaults that they let guests and clients use to store valuables, and this hotel has a really excellent one they installed in 1952, the same year they added Brazilian pink marble to the lobby and expanded the east and west wings, you can tell by the slightly different tones in the imported marble, the hotel was first made with Tennessee marble but they went with Rosa Brazil for the renovations… why would someone from Polybotes have one of those? Do you think that they have something stashed down there?

Piper, whose eyes had glazed over a little when Annabeth started talking about hotel construction, snapped back to attention. “Let’s find out, shall we? Here, I’ll start talking to these guys, they look wasted. Annabeth, go try to eavesdrop on that group over there.” They separated, Piper shimmying up to a group of executives who were all laughing uproariously about something, while Annabeth went to lurk at a table located next to another group of Polybotes employees, one of which included Piper’s rejected suitor.

20 minutes later, Annabeth was hoping that Piper was having a better time of it than she was – so far, the only thing she’d gotten from the group she was snooping on was how shitty Jim from accounting’s backswing was, and how much Dave Bickle loved his coffee.

Just when she thought she was going to break of the champagne flute’s stem and jam it in her throat as the conversation turned to “Spam” Weston and his unfortunate tendency to send people chain emails, Annabeth’s com crackled. “Annabeth, Percy just texted me some floor plans of the headquarters and asked me for an exit plan. I texted him back, but maybe you want to check on him… Are these hot plates room temperature? I’m going to have to dock you for that!” Leaving Hazel to berate the caterers a bit more, Annabeth dug in her clutch for her cell phone and dialed.

Busy talking to Percy, Annabeth didn’t notice when Piper hurried back to her, enough to catch the tale end of her conversation with her boyfriend. “… I’ll strangle you with my underwear.” She hit end, and started when she turned around to find Piper right there, eyebrows raised, arms akimbo. Annabeth gave her a hooded glance. “Don’t even give me that look, McLean, I know about those fuzzy handcuffs you keep in your dresser.”

Piper gave her another sideways look, but waived her hand. “Ugh, nevermind, we have bigger fish to fry. I think I know what’s in the vault. They got pretty tipsy and got going on the subject.”

“What?”

“It’s the standard!” Piper hissed. “They’re renovating their HQ, so they decided to store the standard here in the meantime – since the legality of the acquisition is in question, they felt like keeping it at a hotel might be better than at a bank… they ask less questions, and there’s less of a paper trail. I also found out that they’re moving it out – tomorrow. It’s getting shipped off to Alaska.”

Annabeth’s incredible mind kicked into full gear. “Alaska…” that was practically a world away – chances of them getting it back once it left the state were slim to none, and since possession was 9/10th of the law, if the standard was stolen from the home of the CEO of Polybotes, the museum would never be able to display it again, even if they got it back. If they wanted to get the standard and ensure that it would legally become the museum’s legal property, it was time to reacquire it… now.

“Hazel,” she started calmly. “We can’t let that thing go to Alaska. We need to get it back, before they move it.”

There was a pause on the line. Hazel was in a dark corner of the food pantry, where she’d take refuge when Piper started talking as to hear everything properly - kitchens and terrorizing the waitstaff was a noisy business. She cleared her throat.

“Annabeth, let me understand… You want me to steal a priceless roman standard tonight with nothing but what I can scrounge up in the kitchens?”

“Yes.”

Hazel was silent for a moment, then smiled toothily. “Cool.”


	6. Girl's Night In (2)

Percy had started young. They all had.

He hadn’t even had a terrible home life, or anything so cliché – his mother had loved him more than anything in the world, and she’d done her best with her rambunctious child as a single mother, but Percy had just never been able to sit still – or keep his mouth shut, for that matter. He’d always been getting into scrapes and fights at school, mostly with bullies who’d delighted in wiping the floor with the weak timid: well, Percy was a lot of things, but timid wasn’t one of them, and he’d end up more than once on the wrong side of the principal’s desk, until one day, the fights had escalated to landing him on the wrong side of the law.

After a particularly nasty altercation where he’d broken a boy’s jaw, he’d been summarily expelled hauled off to juvie, to his mother’s devastation. In family court, the judge had taken into account Percy’s youth, some of his teachers’ recommendations that Percy wasn’t a bad kid per se, just a little… overzealous when it came to helping out, as well as the fact that the boy he’d punched had been in the process of using a staple gun on a 6th grader, punching staples into the boy’s legs and stomach. At that point, determining that Percy needed some strict discipline and supervision in his life, the judge had given him a choice – either it was juvie for 9 months, or a stint at Camp Halfblood, a facility for troubled youth up in northern New York. Percy chose the camp.

He’d been 12 at the time, and his mother had cried the entire duration of the sentencing.

Camp Halfblood was where he’d started the new chapter of his life – not one on the straight and narrow, but rather a life a crime, which thankfully, Sally was unaware of, and again, luckily these days involved helping others rather than robbing them blind. Percy liked to think that his mother would appreciate that, though he had no intention of letting her know. He’d had enough of breaking his mother’s heart for one lifetime.

Camp was also where he’d met most of his crew, starting with Annabeth, who’d landed there for her tendency to run away and be combative in class – nothing terrible. None of the kids there were bad, per say, they just had some… issues to work through, as Chiron, their activities manager, liked to put it. Like a regimen of sunshine, exercise, and strawberries would cure them of all their ills. It hadn’t worked out quite like that, but Percy didn’t regret a single moment, all things considered. Those were the things Percy had to remind himself of as he trudged up the stairs to rejoin the girls at the pub – hopefully Annabeth and Hazel wouldn’t massacre them for coming home with quickly purpling bruises and lumps on their head as big as goose eggs.

It was a hard thing to explain, their little crew – how they came to find each other, to bind to each other like glue, brought together by forces bigger than them. Before, they’d been just kids, really, colliding in the dark, doing what they did best (the only thing they knew) but still yearning for a sense of purpose and righteousness that stealing things and breaking jaws just didn’t offer. They weren’t normal – they never had been, and never would be, but this team, this little family they’d assembled and built, was the promise that they could live their lives, do some good, and utilize their skills for some greater resolve than immediate selfish goals. It made risks easier to stomach, too – dying when trying to steal some gaudy ring in a foreign museum for the cash was a lot dumber than losing a life trying to right a terrible wrong (not that any of them planned on dying, really – but in this line of work one must be prepared for that sort of thing). It was, above all, a light in the night, a candle rather than a street lamp: their little setup didn’t have all the answers, didn’t illuminate all the dark corners of their minds and their destinies, but it lit up the dark and showed them the way, as well as each other. And for now, that was enough.

Budding criminals as they’d been, they’d all suffered enormous pain and suffering throughout their lives, had felt the brunt of a cruel, uncaring fate and tasted the bitter fruit of unfairness, of being subjugated and taken advantage of by wills much stronger than theirs. Having people come to them – people in need, in difficulty, with no one else to turn to – was their way to strike back, to ease unbearable burdens and provide leverage for the small people, the mortals to the upper echelons’ towering authority. It was a reminder that for all their money and power, they were not gods: they could bleed and be brought down, even by a group of punk ass kids, a fact that Gaia Incorporated was about to find out, starting with tonight.

On their way home, it was Annabeth that drove, since Piper had had a bit too much champagne, though you’d think it was Hazel that was tipsy, judging by her behavior – she was positively jubilant, grinning broadly, the standard tucked at her feet in the convertible car. As they flew down the highway to get back to the bar, Hazel leaned forward, and shouted with glee, “We just stole an $8 million dollar statue on like, our day off!”

And so they had. Armed with eyeshadow, gum, ice cubes, foil, and the key card Piper had swiped, Hazel had made her way to the vault of the hotel, had infiltrated the vault, and with a flexibility that would have made a trapeze artist proud, had vaulted over a number of laser grids blocking the doors, masked the heat seeking sensors, and used the foil to reflect the beams away from her and the stand upon which the standard rested. In, out, in less than 15 minutes. From there, she’d grabbed an abandoned room service food cart, hid the standard underneath it, and had messaged Piper and Annabeth to go get the car and drive it around back. She’d gone back to the kitchen to yell some more at the staff there, before vamoosing the cart – and the standard – out the back door where Annabeth was waiting with Festus as Piper giggled in the front seat. “Thank god fancy hotels don’t have a lot of cameras except for the lobby,” she’d told Hazel with a smile, and they’d screeched out – well, not really, Annabeth had refused to spin the wheels to “do that cool car sound” like Hazel had begged her to, sternly telling her friends that doing so would damage the car and Leo would put a virus on her phone if she’d do anything to his precious baby. So they’d demurely driven out of the parking lot, while Hazel leaned back and soaked up the high that came with every successful mission.  
Annabeth, on the other hand, kept her mind firmly on the boys – she didn’t dare call again, but she was still worried. If they’d made it out of the building safely, surely Percy would have texted her on the way back… she wasn’t reassured when they arrived at the pub and noticed that their van, the Argo II, wasn’t parked where it usually was. As Piper and Hazel hauled the standard back into the pub, Annabeth fiddled with her phone, debating sending something to Percy, and instead sighed and went back inside to change out of this stupid dress and heels. Didn’t matter if they made her ass look fabulous, they were damned uncomfortable.

Less than an hour later, the boys stumbled in.

Piper leapt off the couch, waving a beer. “Guys, you’ll never guess –” she froze, staring at Frank’s black eye, Percy’s split lip, Leo’s face covered in dirt, Nico’s massive (now dried) nosebleed, and Jason gingerly holding his left arm like it pained him. “Annabeth,” she called, her eyes still locked on the boys. “Get over here.”

Annabeth came in, a slight frown on her face, now comfortably changed in a cream sweater and a pair of pajama jeans Percy had gotten her as a gag gift that had turned out to be one of her favorite at home staples. “What? Have you heard – Oh my God.” Hazel also chose that moment to skip in, carrying a bowl of popcorn and a bottle of soda, that she immediately dropped upon seeing her brother and boyfriend’s battered, bloodied faces. “Nico! Frank!”  
In just a few moments, their large common room had been transformed into a makeshift infirmary, where the girls fussed over the boys – well, Hazel fussed. Piper was torn between worry and laughter (“Wow, you guys really got your asses handed to you”) as she applied gauzes and kisses to Jason’s face, helping him bind his arm. Hazel bounced between Nico and Frank, carefully wiping blood off their faces and getting icepacks out of the fridge, while glaring ferociously at either of them if they tried to protest or get up. They had no choice but to submit to her ministrations, even though Nico looked around miserably for an exit, while Frank wore a look of resigned uncomfortableness, not used to being taken care of, but his pink cheeks belied his pleasure at Hazel’s obvious worry. All the while, the boys took turns explaining what had happened at the HQ - when she heard that Leo had played a part in saving Nico’s bacon, Hazel had gone over to him (he’d been lying on the ground with a cold compress over his eyes) and planted a kiss on his cheek, making him mumble something about being a taken man who shouldn’t be tempted so. The guys all cheered loudly when Piper proudly told them that Hazel had stolen the standard – even Nico had smiled and complimented Hazel warmly, which had made her beam. They all knew they weren’t done – not even close – but it felt like a real win, and they were more than happy to celebrate it.

Annabeth had made sure they were all comfortable, including Leo, before she’d made Percy sit in an overstuffed chair and gotten out a sewing kit out of their first aid box. Her boyfriend pouted up at her, “Why’d you come fix me up last?”

“Because,” she told him as she settled on his thighs. “I’m going to spend the longest time with you, you need stitches. And besides, I’m sitting on your lap, not theirs, so shush and quit complaining. Stay still…” With that, Percy sighed contently and was quiet as she carefully sutured his wound closed. 5 minutes and barely any winces later, Piper was passing off bottles with a large stickers that read “NECTAR BEER: Fit for the Gods!” while Hazel was force-feeding people cookies that she swore were pure Ambrosia. Someone had put music on, and Piper was excitedly telling Jason what had happened at the party in details, while Hazel kept her head on Frank’s shoulder as he tried to reassure her he was perfectly fine – she also took time to throw Jason and Percy a few filthy looks for bringing back her boyfriend and her brother all dinged up. Percy was nuzzling Annabeth’s neck (who’d moved to sit next to him on the chair), starting to feel the effects of the beer. “You looked really good in that dress and those heels… maybe you wanna put them back on? Just for me?”

Annabeth resisted the urge to roll her eyes and barely contained a grin. “Oh, so you’re only into me when I look fancy, is that it? Not sexy enough for you in fake jeans?”

Percy had waggled his eyebrows at her at that. “Why don’t you take me back to our room and have your way with me and find out?” At that moment, Annabeth spied Nico, with a bottle of beer in his hands, sneak out the back door that led to the patio overlooking the wharf. She got up, giving Percy a big smack on the lips as she did. “Be right back, Perce, I gotta go talk to Nico for a sec.”

“Wu-wait!” Percy protested, a little panicked. “I was joking! I think you’re totally hot in those pajamas, I swear!”

Annabeth didn’t repress her eyeroll or her grin this time. “Percy, you’d be into me if I just wore a potato sack. I promise I’ll be right back.” And with that, she ignored Percy’s forlorn look as she slipped outside to follow Nico out the door.


	7. Looking Back

Nico was looking out at the water moodily when Annabeth slipped outside, closing the sliding doors as quietly as possible behind her.

It pitch black, with only the flickering lights of the city on the other side of the bay wavering in the water’s reflections as lights - the water was indistinguishable from the sky in the darkness. Nico had a bottle of beer to his right, and in his lap he held a small grey and white kitten that he petted absently as it purred up a storm while he kept his eyes on the invisible horizon.

Annabeth sat next to him with a small hum of disapproval. “You know Percy’s not allowed outside, especially at night.” The kitten, that Percy had found one day in the subway coming home from a mission and had named Small Bob, had grown so attached to him and had been so vocal (annoyingly so, rather, most of the crew would say) that they’d named him Percy as well, to human Percy’s eternal annoyance. 

Nico shrugged moodily. “Maybe he wanted a bit of fresh air.” Annabeth snorted, and plucked the kitten off his lap to take him back inside. “More like you needed some fresh air, Di Angelo.” Once she’d safely ushered Percy/Small Bob back inside the pub, she went back to sitting next to Nico, to his visible annoyance. “If you don’t mind -” he started sarcastically.

“I do mind,” Annabeth cut him off. “You’re obviously sore about what happened tonight.”

Nico was silent for a moment, before shrugging uncomfortably. “I know that Percy and Jason thought I was gonna bail tonight, when we got shot at,” he muttered. Annabeth, wise as she was, immediately understood the implications. Instead of tripping over herself to excuse their actions or point out their reasons for thinking so, which she was sure would just cause Nico to clamp up and storm off, she sighed heavily and settled herself next to Nico. They’d known each other for years, had been on the same crew for long now, but neither of them were particularly prone to oversharing or having coeur a coeurs with others, and certainly not about their painful past, but this seemed like a story Nico should hear.

Annabeth’s voice shook slightly as she looked out towards the water. “When I was a kid, I left home at a really early age. My family wasn’t evil or horribly abusive or anything, it just… nothing ever fit. I wasn’t where I needed to be.” At that point, she laughed, though the sound was a bit unsteady. “Well, that and the fact that I blew up the shed when I was 7 because my stepmother confiscated my stuffed bunny, but that’s another story.” Nico raised his eyebrow in begrudging respect.

“Anyways, I bailed, and ended up with a couple of other runaways. There was a girl, Thalia – she was like a sister to me, we were so close. And… there was Luke.” At that point, Annabeth’s voice became quiet and pensive, as if she was entirely lost in memories, plunging into another time, an entirely different life.

“We ran a crew together. Car theft, high end stuff. It worked out well – I was the lookout, while Thalia broke into the car and Luke would get it to start and then we’d ride off into the sunset.” An almost fond smile illuminated her face. “Well, in that case, the sunset was the nearest chop shop, but we were good together. I trusted them… completely. Especially Luke. He was the leader, the one we both looked up too. I… I thought everything was great, but it wasn’t.” She shook her head, as if she was still hurt and bewildered by what she’d missed, all these years ago. The bottle of microbrew beer Frank had made himself hung loosely in her hand, entirely forgotten. Nico was concentrated on her, listening to every word she said, but he also had the feeling that she was far away, entirely oblivious to his presence, to the water lapping at the port, the seagulls crying or the muffled chatter emanating from the bar.

“Thalia… Thalia wasn’t happy with how things were going. She thought that Luke was getting way too reckless, stealing cars that were too flashy, taking bigger risks – there were too many close calls, which I thought was a huge thrill then, because I was a kid, I was with Luke, I was invincible.” She shook her head and took a swing of beer before making a face. “God, I hate beer. Obviously, Thalia didn’t see it the same way. And she was right.” Annabeth looked down then, stony faced with her mouth twisted in bitterness. It was hypocritical of him, Nico thought, that he was desperate to hear the rest of the story when he himself would rather jump off the pier than lay out his sadsack backstory, but still he stayed silent and still, willing Annabeth to keep going.

She did not disappoint. “Luke had a big score all lined up – it took weeks for him to convince Thalia. I can’t even remember what he promised – probably some bullshit about it being the last big job, how after that we’d take all that cash and we really would leave it all behind.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. Like we’d ever be the type to settle down somewhere, do what? Two teenage runaways and a missing kid running a car theft ring, moving into the suburbs. What a crock. So, we went and cased the place and made our move. We got busted – obviously. Luke was such a dumbass, he decided to go after a brand new Ferrari, the flashiest car possible, in the parking lot of some fancy ass hotel.” She stopped then, taking another swing of beer and making a face. When she didn’t pick up the story, Nico’s impatience got the best of him. “So?” He prompted. “What happened?” There was silence, then a short, sad sigh.

“Luke bailed.”

Nico sat up straight, disbelieving. “Wait, what? He left his crew?”

Annabeth nodded. “Yup, left me and Thalia holding the bag. The second he heard those cop sirens and saw the lights, realized that we were fucked, he took off and never looked back. It wasn’t pretty, either. Thalia… Thalia got hurt real bad.”

Once again, Nico didn’t let her stop. “What do you mean, hurt bad? Did she-”

Before he could finish, Annabeth shook her head. “No, she didn’t die. She got tazered, though, and she didn’t react well to that. Convulsed, fell, hit her head. Last I heard, she fell in a coma. Not that I got any status updates, though – got myself arrested and stuck in juvie. I refused to tell them my name, so they wouldn’t send me back to my dad.” She shrugged, rolling the beer bottle between her hands.

Nico was speechless for a moment, looking out to the water. Annabeth shook her head, as if to shake off the revelries and old memories of crimes past and lost friendships. “I didn’t tell you that to drum up sympathy, Nico – what I’m trying to say, is that we’re a crew, a team, all of us.” Nico’s throat and chest was beginning to feel tight. He’d had enough of this, being questioned, distrusted, singled out – fine. After this job, he was done, he’d disappear –  
He didn’t notice Annabeth had scooted closer to him until he felt her presence, warm and vibrant, next to his. It was such a foreign sensation to be close enough to someone to feel their body heat, to smell their shampoo, that he backed away, startled. Annabeth smelled like steel, cold and sharp, but like warm vanilla, like home. His mom had smelled like vanilla, too – she’d always preferred putting pure vanilla extract on her wrists and rubbing them together to perfume.  
Annabeth leaned in close, but didn’t touch him, which Nico appreciated. “Now, I know Jason and Percy are really big on loyalty and everything, and they have to be – for a crew like ours to feel safe, we have to know that we can depend on each other 1000%.” When Nico growled and made to get up, Annabeth rushed, “No no no, you don’t understand. I don’t think you’re like Luke, I know you’d never leave any of us behind. You’re not that kind of person, I know we can count on you even if you’re all mysterious and shit. I think you’re like Thalia.”

“Thalia?” stuttered Nico. “Coma girl?” That earned him a slap to the side of the head – a bump, really, more than anything else, but enough to chastise him and get him to slink back down next to her. “Don’t get fresh with me, Di Angelo,” Annabeth warned, eyes narrowed. “Yes, Thalia. Some days, I’m not sure if you even want to be here. If this… is what you’re meant for, if that’s something you want to do and you’re not just sticking around because of your sister and weird history with us.” Nico was silent. He drew his knees up towards his chest, balling himself up to keep her words out, but didn’t try to leave again. Annabeth pushed on, voice soft but enthralling. She’d been spending too much time with Piper, he noted sourly.

“We need you, Nico, we really do. You’re so important to this mission, to all of them, you’re truly irreplaceable. I also think that deep down, you kind of need us too. It’s good for all of us to be here, one way or another, and I think it’s good for you too. You just… you never show us that. And sometimes, I think people get worried about you because you always look like you’d rather be anywhere else.”

“Nowhere else to be,” he bit off.

Annabeth’s lips twitched, but she had the good sense not to laugh. “Well, I think I gathered that – so has Piper and Hazel. But you could do a little more to show us that, too. Like, take Leo. If you lock in him a room for three weeks with internet access and orange soda, he’d be totally fine. That’s pretty much his natural state. When he first joined this crew, you couldn’t get 5 words out of him when there was a screen nearby - that’s just him. He’s at his best when it’s just him and his computer. But he makes a point, you know, to try and to be present and be a really big part of our team, even if that means annoying the living shit out of us.” Nico snorted but nodded along . “Jason and Percy – I know you guys have a past and have said some ugly things, and that’s okay, it really is. I hated Jason when I first met him, couldn’t stand his face, and now he’s pretty much the person I get along with best, save for Percy. You don’t need to prove yourself to us, Nico. You already have. It’s just, they give second chances, you know? If you let them, they’ll do that. You just… you just have to meet us halfway. Let us know that you want to be part of this crew, that you’re just not… passing through.”

Nico scrubbed his face with his hand. “Fuck. This is shit is complicated. I can’t believe you’re here trying to mother me and shit, hell. You’re like the prickliest person here after me.” That earned him another gentle head slap, more of a push than anything else. “What did I say about getting fresh?” Annabeth just shook her head. “Don’t worry, it’s not all about you. It’s about me, too – I just don’t want to end up like Luke. Making people do things they don’t want to do, getting them hurt, or killed just because I thought I knew what was best and didn’t listen to the warning signs…” her voice trailed off. “That’d be the worst.” She sighed and got up. “Well anyways, I’m all talked out. I’m gonna find Percy and let him get into my pants, he’s been trying all night.” With that last comment, she departed, following Nico’s “Oh my GOD, Annabeth, the FUCK, talk about TMI” yowls of protest.

Finally, when she’d left, Nico had the deck to himself. At last, some peace and quiet. Just the seagulls, the wind, the water… good old boring solitude, like always… just him and his thoughts, and the water… it was a little repetitive, and little reductive, but hey, he was Nico, and Nico was ALL about the solitude, the wi-

“NICO, BUDDY!” His eyes popped open, and he swiveled from his place on the deck to face the new person behind him. “Leo, what the shit? Could you fuck off for a minute?”

Leo rolled his eyes derisively, a perfect imitation of Annabeth’s own withering technique. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting precious brooding time? What happens if you don’t sulk enough in a day, you turn into a strawberry blonde or something? Come on, man, I have something inside, the seagulls’ll still be shitting outside tomorrow if you want to listen to them and cry or something.”

“I am NOT – oh, gross, they pooped everywhere. This is nasty, I hate being fucking outside.” Glowering, he got to his feet. “What do you WANT, Valdez?”  
“Giving you something to do instead of getting shat on by angry birds while you recite My Chemical Romance lyrics to yourself – check out what I just installed on your laptop!” He brandished the computer with both hands, handing it to Nico with a flourish.

“You touched my laPT- wait. Is that the new Mythomagic Online expansion? It’s not supposed to come out for another 3 months!”

“Dude, I’m a pro!” Leo told him gleefully. “Their firewalls was like wet tissue paper, I burned through that shit after 3 beers.” He gave him a big grin. “Worth it for the crewmate that saved my life, what’s up!”

Nico was silent for a moment, so long that even sloshed as he was, Leo could tell that something was wrong, and his big smile dimmed.  
“Uh, yeah, if you want me to, I’ll uninstall it, I just thought –”

“No!” Nico clutched the computer to his chest. Meet us halfway, Annabeth had said. He cleared his throat. “Um, thanks, man. I appreciate it. This is… this is actually really cool.”

Leo beamed. “Awesome! I’m in the back, hacking MI-6’s mainframe, I need to check something out. I think Frank’s making food or something, you wanna hang?” For a moment, Nico felt the urge to take the computer and go play alone in his room, or better yet, drop it and walk out of the pub, just leave them all behind, with their warmth, their friendship, the companionship they promised, the crushing loss that would settle again in his chest when all of this would inevitably come to an end…

“Okay,” he felt himself saying. “Alright, let’s go.” And with that, he and Leo slipped back inside the warm, noisy pub.


	8. Bonus Round

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a little bonus chapter that’s set in the universe and timeline (this took place during the case they're working on during the rest of the fic) but is unrelated to the current score, henceforth why it’s a bonus. I was gonna incorporated it in the next chapter, but it got a bit long, and I figured it deserved its own standalone chapter, so here we are.

"Okay."

Leo sprawled himself next to Nico, who shot him a dirty look and moved his McDonald’s cup out of the way before Leo and his fat ass spilled all of his diet coke over his pants and his DS.

Leo jabbed his finger at the screen of the laptop he had settled on his stomach. There was a webpage open on the browser, with a curious tagline -

Nico squinted at it. “What the fuck? Is this a dating website? If you need some ass, dude, take care of it yourself -“

"Number one, there’s no need to be vulgar," Leo chided. "What would your sister say? No, don’t pinch! And second, if there’s anyone that needs "ass", as you so romantically put it, it’s you, not me. Besides," he said wistfully. "I’ve already got someone. But that’s beside the point."

Sitting up, Nico glared at him. “What do you mean, you’ve got someone? What poor girl did you con into dating  _you_?”

"Wouldn’t you like to know?" Leo sneered back. "Now stop distracting me! We’re all tired of your moppy ass -"

"-who’s  _we_?”

"-being all gloom and doom and shit because you’re lonely. We all know you’re a real marshmallow inside, you listen to My Chemical Romance." As Nico mumbled something about it being a good band, ok, Leo pointed at the screen again.

"SO we’re gonna put up your profile online and bag you a lady friend! And then maybe you’ll actually leave the house once in a while."

"Are you fucking kidding me? You haven’t been out in three weeks!"

Leo gave him a baleful look. “Excuse you, two and a half!”

Nico rolled his eyes, cheeks reddening. “Whatever. This is dumb.”

"We’re gonna do it anyways. Okay," Leo drawled the syllable out, jamming his tongue between his teeth. "What are we gonna pick as a username… I vote Mythofreak42, or PanicattheNico."

"Fuck you, man."

"What? I don’t see you volunteering anything."

At this point Nico’s arms were crossed and he was glaring at the wall, his entire face red. He mumbled something under his breath. Leo frowned. “What was that?”

With a huff of exasperation, Nico rolled his eyes. “I said, just use Ghostking66.”

"Um, okay, weirdo. Whatever, it’s your profile, see if I care if you get all kinds of Twilight loving chicks asking you to suck on an ice cube before you make out with them-"

Just as he was getting revved him with his jabs, Leo’s phone rang. “Hold on, this could be important…” he fished the phone out of his pocket and answered it. “Hello? Who is this? Oh, hey, Chiron. What’s up? What do you mean, the systems are down AGAIN? I walked you through this last week!” With an exacerbated huff, Leo put the phone on his shoulder. “This is gonna take a while, you’re gonna have to finish this yourself.”

Nico bristled. “No way, dude! This was YOUR idea!”

"Nuh uh, I’m not gonna let you squirrel out of this one! You’re gonna finish this up and - oh, perfect. Jason!" he called over at their fellow crewmate, who’d been crossing the living room from the kitchen, clutching an apple. "Um, yeah?"

"Nico needs to finish this and I have to work. Don’t let him up from that couch without filling it out, you hear me?" And with that, Leo dumped the laptop in his friend’s arms and hared off, all the while squawking into his cellphone, yelling abuse at their former counselor for fucking up his systems… again.

Nico tried to get up. “I really don’t need this, we have a big score to prepare for, and -“

Jason cut him off. “Wow, you’re signing up for a dating website? Nico, that’s great!” He gave his friend a big smile. “I’m really happy for you! This is really cool, you’re gonna meet some awesome people. Come on, I’ll help you fill it out!” Frozen by Jason’s enthusiasm, Nico stayed immobile on the couch, the tips of his nose and ears still bright red.

Jason let out a content sigh. “I’m just so happy with Piper, you know? It’s so amazing, just being with someone you care for like that. Wouldn’t it be great if you could find someone too?”

Nico let out an uncomfortable laugh, the rare sound coming out like a squeaking  door hinge, rusty from disuse. “We’re all hardened criminals, Jason, I don’t think dating a… normal person is gonna simplify my life.”

Jason shrugged. “Well, love rarely simplifies things. Often, it just makes things more complicated. But it’s… it’s just so worth it.”

"Well." Nico cleared his throat and threw him an obscure look. "I’m not sure about the eternal love you’ve got going on with Piper, but maybe a little bit… of fun wouldn’t hurt, I guess."

"That’s the spirit!" Jason beamed at him. "Just casual hang outs can be really nice, no expectations or anything long term if you don’t want it." He suddenly frowned. "Just make sure to be safe, okay?"

Nico buried his head in his palms and started swearing in italian, his forehead cherry red. Jason turned to the screen. “Okay, let’s get back to it! Your username is… Ghostking66? Are you sure?”

"Oh my God, fine! Use SisyphusX instead." Jason nodded, diligently typing in the name.

"Mm, okay. And done. Now we’re gonna stay local, so staying with metro area and-" A little drop down menu had appeared on the screen, with blanks for them to fill out. "You are a guy seeking girls for friendship and romance. And then we have to put in - what?"

Nico had squirmed in his seat, looking at anywhere but Jason. He muttered something underneath his breath.

"What was that?"

Nico coughed and mumbled out, “and boys.”

"What?"

Nico cleared his throat and enunciated. “Guys seeking girls… and boys.”

Jason stared at him for a second, and then nodded slowly. “Okay. Okay, I’ll check the box.” He clicked it, and silently typed in the rest of Nico’s information, until the computer chimed. “Alright, your profile’s ready to go… I think you need to edit it, add your interests, a photo, stuff like that…” Nico nodded silently, sneaking furtive glances at Jason. Jason just handed Nico the computer and clasped his shoulder. “It’s cool, dude,” he said quietly. “Just as long as you’re happy.”

Throat tight, Nico nodded.

Right then, Piper and Hazel burst in, squealing, with Piper holding a brush and some pins and Hazel a camera. Frank, looking a little pink, shuffled in behind them, holding a large lamp.

"Oh my GOD, Nico, Leo told us you got a dating profile -"

"What?" Nico yelped, just as Piper started attacking him with a brush. Hazel went on, bouncing up and down. "This is so SO SO EXCITING! I brought my camera, we’re gonna take the BEST picture EVER for your profile! Frank, lights!" Sheepishly, Hazel’s boyfriend turned on the lamp and held it next to Nico’s face, who was turning green.

Piper stuck a few bobby pins in his hair. “Do you own anything red? Studies show that red shirts make you look more attractive. No? Well, I guess I can work with black,” she finished with a sigh.

Percy and Annabeth chose that moments to come in as well. “Dude!” was all Percy said with a wide grin. “Nice!” Annabeth was holding a few books in her hand. “Congrats, Nico! I brought you some of my guides on dating and relationships. I’m sure you’ll find them fascinating.”

"W-wha-" spluttered Nico as Hazel was snapping away and Piper was fairly pulling his hair out by the roots - Jason, meanwhile, was methodically writing Nico’s "about me" section, and occasionally muttered things like ‘caring’, ‘sensitive’, and ‘tabletop game aficionado’. Annabeth, intelligent as she was, understood Nico’s question immediately.

"Oh, Leo told us everything! Told us how you came over to beg him for his help setting up a profile. Really, Nico," she added half sternly, half concerned. "You could have asked Percy and me to help. No need to cry. We had no idea you were that desperate!"

Nico leapt up with a roar. “Valdez, I’m going to GUT you!”

 


	9. What Doesn't Kill You...

_Just when Annabeth was about to damn the torpedoes and make a break for it, Reyna grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing busboy (not Frank, much to Annabeth’s chagrin – he might be a teddy bear, but an imposing one, which at the moment would have made her feel better), and said in a tone that was almost bored, “Relax, Chase, I’m not here to bust you.”_

_Annabeth resisted the urge to narrow her eyes and scoff. “Well, what are you here for, then?”_

_At that, Reyna gave her a toothy smile that really should have looked a lot friendlier than it was. “Why, to help with tonight’s big takedown, of course.”_

Annabeth snorted, only the tight clutch on her flute belying her nervousness. Most people wouldn’t pick up on something like that, but Reyna wasn’t most people. “Help? You don’t help. You swoop in and arrest… or at least, you try to.”

It was two weeks after the night the boys had infiltrated the Polybots HQ and the girls had retrieved the standard from the hotel vault. As Annabeth had predicted, the theft wasn’t declared and the police hadn’t been notified, but security had tightened up considerably – the people at Gaia now knew they had resistance, if not who exactly was doing it.

The plan now was to get some good old-fashioned dirt on Gaia. They couldn’t entirely take it down – it was too big, too successful to destroy just yet – but instead to generate enough bad press and possibly some attention from law enforcement to force them to back off of New Rome and Camp Jupiter and end their practice of preying on at risk kids to become soldiers of fortune for Gaia’s gain. It would have been preferable to entirely shut it down, but it wasn’t in the cards quite yet. They had a good shot at succeeding now that they had a clear goal, and tonight they’d be well on their way… at least, they were until Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Interpol agent extraordinaire and accomplished thief-catcher (which wasn’t exactly reassuring to the crew, as none of them were particularly relishing the idea of rotting forever in some damp French prison) had appeared out of nowhere.

Reyna gave a small smile at Annabeth’s well-landed jab. “Swoop in, how dramatic. No, I’m here for Camp Jupiter. You’re not the only ones who want it to stay open, you know.”

Startled, Annabeth tried to mask her surprise by taking a sip of champagne. “Really? You don’t strike me as someone who does most things out of the kindness of her heart. What’s your connection to New Rome?”

“Your low opinion of my humanitarianism wounds me,” Reyna intoned drily. “Didn’t Jason tell you?”

Under the twinkling lights from the chandelier and the soft classical music playing from the live orchestra, it should have been a fairly relaxing atmosphere – food and wine were flowing freely, the city’s uppercrust rubbing elbows and stuffing their faces as they schmoozed one another. All in all, not exactly the kind of environment that would normally make Annabeth’s mouth dry and her heart pound, but for all appearance to her nervous system, the room was filled with spiders, not pompous rich people lying to each other.

Annabeth shot a sharp glance at her crewmate, who was currently charming the Chanel drawers off a group of middle aged women dressed in pearls and diamonds, all falling over each other to hold his attention. Jason looked entirely engrossed by their company, but Annabeth knew better – he wasn’t missing a single word of her conversation with his ex-partner from his Interpol days.

Reyna smirked, raising an eyebrow. “Oh my, can it really be that I know something the great Annabeth Chase doesn’t? Thought you knew everything, ‘Wise Girl’.” In her mouth, Percy’s term of endearment felt like an insult and a proposition at the same time.

Obviously, Annabeth didn’t actually know _everything_ , but she knew how to fake it like a pro (which, incidentally, she was). “Everybody’s got secrets, right? Talking about that, how’s your sister? Hope you knee didn’t get too banged up when you went to visit her. Tangling with Somali pirates is never fun.”

At this, Reyna grinned suddenly– her tone was almost admirative when she fairly purred, “Well. You’re not omniscient, but you just may come close.” At that, she glanced to the left – unable to help herself, followed her gaze to where Frank was serving up petit fours to a bored looking group of balding men in overly tight tuxes. “Let’s just say that Jason and I knew each other a long time ago, before Interpol. We met at this charming little camp in California, which I do believe your friends Frank and – what was her name again? Chesnut? Ah, I remember now. Hazel – attended as well.”

Annabeth was so was so focused on digesting this new information that she barely noticed Reyna until the taller woman (which was quite a feat, considering Annabeth’s own rather impressive height which was currently enhanced by the fancy heels Piper had forced her in) had stepped near her, so that her long legs were brushing the hem of Annabeth’s dress and she could feel the warmth of her breath on her cheek. “So you see,” Reyna continued, her voice dropping down to an almost whisper, “It seems we all have assigned the place some… sentimental value.”

Annabeth’s head was swirling. How the hell did Jason, Hazel and Frank end up attending Camp Jupiter and hadn’t disclosed that to them when they started the mission? Why keep it a secret, especially from the rest of the team? It was a tough pill to swallow, but Reyna didn’t have any reason to lie.

While she struggled to come up with some sort of response, Reyna looked Annabeth up and down, her eyes lingering on waist and hips. “Nice dress. Makes you look good. But then again, you don’t really need couture to do that, do you? I’ll be in touch.” And with that mystifying comment, she was gone, turning away and disappearing into the crowd.

Jason muttered on his comm, “Okay, this wasn’t how I wanted you to find out. If you could just let me explain-”

“No,” Annabeth bit out curtly, cutting him off. “We’ve got work to do. And I really don’t want to hear it right now.”

She stood immobile for a second, before shaking her head and turning to look at Percy, who was staring at her, his eyes bugged and his mouth open. With a jerk of her neck, she motioned for him to follow, and they both melted out of the ballroom in turn.

  

“She was totally staring at your cleavage! She was looking DOWN your dress, Annabeth, how did you miss it? You were right there!”

“Hon,” she grunted as she hauled the bag from underneath the table where Nico had stashed it, “Thanks for your faith in my push up bras, but I don’t have any cleavage. Move over.”

Percy was hovering over Annabeth as she started digging through the bag. They were in an empty storage room one floor down from the party, and Annabeth was planning their entry strategy to access the billiards room in the basement, where a number of Polybots execs would hopefully be talking about something juicy and incriminating, but right now, they needed an in.

“Annabeth, you are a married woman!” he bleated as she rummaged through the bag.

“Percy, we’re not married.”

“That’s a mere technicality!! And we totally got married on Isla Paradiso – remember that weird score?”

“That was a leper colony, Percy, their marriage licenses aren’t legal abroad.”

“Okay then… Annabeth, will you –” At this, she looked up and gave him a bone chilling glare. “Oh no, Jackson, you are NOT proposing to me in some dirty basement because Interpol Barbie made a maybe pass at me.”

Beginning to understand that this track wasn’t going to work, Percy went on the offensive. Crouching next to her, Percy whispered harshly, “What about the kids, Annabeth?? Think of how much you’re hurting them!”

“Percy.” She sighed as she fiddled with the long-range scanner, her tone dry enough to cause a drought over a tri-state area. “We don’t HAVE kids.”

“I,” Percy sniffed, “Am referring to Frank and Small Bob. They need their strong parental figures now more than ever.”

Frank’s comm crackled to life. “Yeah! Wait, what?”

Percy could hear Leo laughing hysterically in his earpiece, but he persisted. “Annabeth, I know my ass isn’t as cute as hers, but _please_ think about what you’re doing right now.”

She shook her head, even if she was grateful for his prattling, as it was currently distracting her at how pissed she was at half her goddamn team. “Fine, then. Let’s compromise. What about a threesome?”

Percy froze, looking horribly conflicted. His face was screwed up with indignation and jealousy, but his pupils had widened considerably with lust at the mental image. He began making a low-pitched whining sound. “Ngg…….?”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Relax, Jackson, it was a joke, don’t have a mental breakdown.” Looking both terribly relieved and horribly disappointed, Percy nodded, a little dazed. “Uh. Yeah. Right.”

“Come on, loverboy, we got a party to crash.”

Annabeth kicked the bag back under the table – Leo would be back for it tomorrow. They stepped outside, Percy looking left and right to make sure the coast was clear, and it was – save for a tall blond man in perfectly cut tuxedo, who was walking towards them quickly. “Annabeth,” Jason began.

Annabeth didn’t give him the chance. “We have to situate these bugs now, before the execs get to the game room and it’ll get too hot to plant. Leo said they have scramblers in the venue, so we’ll just have the devices set to record everything and we’ll come back to collect them tomorrow, which means we absolutely cannot blow our cover.”

During that little speech, Annabeth had pushed right past Jason and was striding down the corridor quickly. They boys were half jogging to keep up with her. “I’ll go down and them up, Percy, you’ll come with me so that you can make sure the security goon that’ll be outside the room when they go in doesn’t accidentally stand in front of them. Jason and Piper, distract the targets for a few minutes to buy us some time. Once they’re planted, we’ll go back upstairs. Piper and I will leave in 15 minutes, you follow in 20, and Percy, Hazel and Frank will leave when their shift is over. Nico –”

“Already gone,” he said flatly over the comms. “I’m back in Lucille with Leo. Planted four devices on the inside of the room by coming in and out via the airshaft.”

“We’ll roll out once you plant the bugs and I’ll come back as maintenance tomorrow and collect them,” Leo said.

“Okay, everyone, let’s make this happen. We haven’t got much time.” At that, she turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

When Jason made to follow, Percy turned around suddenly and grabbed his arm. His eyes became hard and flinty as he looked his teammate dead in the eyes. “I managed to get her head back in the game, Grace, but you’re gonna have a hell of a song and dance to do tonight to explain what the fuck is going on. And Nico,” – at this, he raised his tone a bit. “Don’t think for a _second_ you’re off the hook either. There’s no way you didn’t know, and Annabeth knows that. You four better get your shit together tonight, cause I promise you, you’re in deep right now.” His parting shot struck home – Jason flinched and opened his mouth, but closed it quickly, and went back up to the staff stairs to rejoin the shindig.

 

20 feet from the billiards room, Annabeth’s demeanor changed. She went from stone faced and grim to giggling and stumbling, tripping over the hem of her dress as she clutched Percy’s arm under the guise of keeping her balance. When the reached the double doors, she leaned heavily against the frame and tugged Percy towards her by his necktie. Sliding her arms around his neck and sinking her hands in his thick, soft hair, she brought his mouth to hers.

Percy, consummate professional and besotted boyfriend he was, responded enthusiastically. He pressed himself against her, his arms going around her waist as he sunk his thumbs in the dip of her hips, stepping between her legs and forcing her to spread them wide to accommodate him.

“I’ll – just let you know,” Percy murmured between kisses, “That if – if you leave me for Reyna, you’ll never,” he stopped as Annabeth moaned and jerked on his hair when he laved an open mouth kiss against her neck and sucked. “Get kisses like that again.”

Annabeth laughed breathlessly as she hiked her leg higher up his hip. “Percy, please. First of all,” she nipped his ear as he bent towards her cleavage, minimal as it was, making him shudder and roll his hips against hers. “I would bet Reyna’s a pretty good kisser – no, don’t stop – and second, you’d never leave me, even if I banged half the city.”

“Stop being so smart,” he groaned as he palmed her ass and squeezed. “And stop making fun of my totally pathetic inability to quit you.”

Annabeth smiled softly and placed a small kiss to his brow. “Wouldn’t change you for the world, Seaweed Brain. Now make out with me, the guard’s coming.”

They started making all kinds of indecent noises, causing Leo to go “gr-OSS” over the comms, gasping and panting, enough to make it clear what they were doing – thus justifying their presence.

“H-hey!” The intruding guard stuttered. “Hey, you can’t do that here. This is a private floor! How did you get here?”

Percy and Annabeth broke apart, Annabeth’s lipstick smudged around her mouth and his. “Oooooh, so-rry!” she said breathlessly, leaning forward against Percy’s chest. “My boyfriend has a pass and we just wanted, uh – a little privacy.”

Percy grinned sheepishly and held up his security badge. “Sorry, dude, I was on my break, didn’t think that floor was used.”

“It wasn’t,” the guard said begrudgingly. “But we’re having some whales coming through soon. Just take your girl and go back upstairs before they get here.”

“Thanks, man,” Percy winked as he escorted a tittering Annabeth back the way they came. “I owe you one.”

The guard never noticed the three remote listening devices that Percy and Annabeth had cleverly planted during their little romp.

“Yeah, Reyna THAT.” Percy muttered to himself as he straightened out his tie.

“What was that?”

“Oh, er, nothing babe, I’ll see you back… back at the pub.” Annabeth sighed heavily, trying to hold on to her anger so as not to let her hurt and old feelings of betrayal swamp her.

“Yeah. I’ll see you there.”

 

Piper was sitting cross-legged across from Jason, Hazel and Frank– despite their attempts to catch her eye, she stubbornly avoided looking at them. When Frank tried to open his mouth, Leo came out and settled himself next to Piper, and gave Frank a look that made it clear that if he opened his mouth, he’d be receiving porn spam in his inbox until the end of time.

The return had gone off without a hitch – the rest of the team had trickled back home one by one. They were now all in the pub’s backroom, waiting for Annabeth and Percy to come in and give them a status report – at least, that was the excuse.

It was like the room itself had been divided between to camps – Jason, Hazel and Frank sitting on one side, with Piper and Leo occupying the couch directly in front of them in stony, cold silence. Nico was sitting closest to his sister on a stool that was situated just left of center between the two sofas.

“You know,” Leo drawled at last, breaking the standoff. “I try to make it a habit not to pry into my partners’ lives – professional courtesy, if you will. I’m thinking I’m gonna change that policy soon.”

Nico bristled. “What is this, honesty hour? We’re not obliged to tell you anything about our personal lives. This is a professional crew, dammit, not homeroom. We’re not gonna tell you from the start –”

“No, you shouldn’t have told us from the start, but you SHOULD have told us when we started this mission!” cut Annabeth brutally. She strode in, Percy on her trail as she skewered half her team with a belligerent glare. “There is no excuse – I shouldn’t have to learn some major news about MY team from an outsider – from a _cop_ , no less! Percy even told us about the fact that he’d been to Camp Jupiter for a few months, and that’s why he brought the mission to our attention. Why the hell wouldn’t you guys disclose the same fact? You can keep secrets, but not when we’re working a goddamn job!”

“We didn’t lie, we just _withheld_ a few, a few details – ”

“So we’re not gonna pretend you were totally surprised when I first started talking about Camp Jupiter?” Percy was almost heaving with anger. “Acting like you’d never even heard of the place? _You don’t con your own crew_!”

“Guys, please –” Jason tried.

“Ugh.” With an eye roll and a toss of her head, Piper silenced him. Her look of bored insouciance would have made any starlet jealous of ability to emulate fashionable ennui, but her clenched hands belied her agitation. “Please don’t, I’m sure whatever excuse that’s going to come out of your mouth will just be terribly dull. I’m not interested.” With that, she rose to her feet and made to leave.

“Piper,” said Hazel quietly as she passed her. “Please let us explain.”

“Explain what?” she tossed back. “That you’ve been lying – oh, excuse me, _withholding_ just a few details – from us? No, I get it. You’re totally fascinated by our life stories but when it comes to your life its off limits, is that it? Not really how friends treat each other but hey,” Piper gave a little shrug and a brittle laugh. “You’ve made it clear we’re not, right? Just crewmates, barely at that, so it’s not so bad.”

“Piper, please, let’s talk about this.” Jason finally stood up and tried to put his hands on her shoulders, but she shook him off with a glare. “Let’s not. I talk to my friends and to my boyfriend, and right now, you’re neither.” She tossed off a pointed look at Hazel, Frank and Nico to make it clear she was including them as well as Jason in her tongue lashing before she strode out the door. Jason, Frank and Hazel visibly wilted at her departure, while Nico just clenched his jaw and said nothing.

“So,” started Frank quietly. “We’re not gonna… drop the mission?”

“There are kids who still need our help,” replied Annabeth frostily. “They don’t deserve to be punished for something _they_ didn’t do.” Frank hung his head while Hazel’s shoulders dropped even lower and her hands fluttered to her eyes. Jason stood awkwardly, staring off at the doorway through which Piper had disappeared, almost as if he were trying to will her back to the room.

Leo shrugged and got up. “There’s not much else to say. I’m tired, and I need to get up at 4 am to infiltrated maintenance, so I’m going to bed.”

“There’s a good reason for this.” Nico finally bit out, but Leo wasn’t impressed.

“Does it really matter why you lied? Doesn’t change the fact you did. I’m just… I don’t really wanna deal with this right now.” Leo picked up his laptop and turned to leave. “And,” he whirled around just as he left. “I totally want my copy of Bioshock: Infinite back. I only lend my games to FRIENDS.”

Jason had snapped out of his Piper induced trance, and ran his fingers through his hair. “I – okay, let me just start from the top. It was –”

“Actually, I… don’t think so.” Annabeth surprised everyone in the room, including herself. Annabeth Chase, turning down a chance at information, her raison d’être? But tonight, she was just tired, overwhelmed, and though she tried to hide it, heartbroken. She loved her team – loved them fiercely and unequivocally, considered them her family, the people she’d do anything for, tell anything to, really belonged with. To have a number of them not see her the same way – apparently not trusting her enough, not considering her close enough to them to tell her the truth – was just entirely soul crushing. She was tired, she was upset; she just wanted to crawl into bed, fuck her boyfriend, eat some ice cream, maybe cry a little and then pass out. Listening to Jason spill his guts guiltily just didn’t have a place in her schedule tonight. “I’m just, I’m just heading to bed. Come on, Percy.”

“Annabeth, I’m sorry,” choked Hazel miserably. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m sure you are,” she responded woodenly. “But I’m not sure that’s really enough tonight.” Percy wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and ushered her out of the room, not trusting himself to speak. The door swung shut behind him.

Jason, Hazel, Frank and Nico didn’t say anything. The dead silence was only intermittently broken by Hazel’s sniffles as they simply sat there, trying to think of ways to fix things, while attempting to ignore the sinking feeling that some things just couldn’t be repaired, no matter how hard you tried.


End file.
